Truthbook Religious News Blog

Sun, December 20, 2009

Religious freedom not the rule for majority of world

The majority of the world – seven in 10 – lives in countries with high restrictions on religious freedom, according to a newly released Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life report.

By Taylor Barnes Correspondent / December 18, 2009

The majority of countries and territories across the world have laws or constitutions calling for freedom of religion. But religious freedom is not the reality for the majority of the globe’s people.

Nearly 70 percent of the world’s population lives in countries with "high" or "very high" religious restriction – that's the finding of a first-of-its-kind Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life survey. It notes that some of the strictest countries in the world are also the most populous. But no nation is fully free of religious restriction, it adds.

"We found that there’s sort of no discrimination in terms of who gets abused or discriminated against. Every religious group experiences discrimination of one sort or another," says Pew Senior Researcher Brian Grim. For example, he says, even members of a nation’s majority faith often come under restrictions. Largely Christian or Muslim countries, for example, still may discriminate against particular Christian or Muslim sects. "It is an unfortunately shared experience."

The study is unique because it quantifies the levels of social hostilities and government actions that restrict practice of religions in 198 countries and self-governing territories. These include crimes motivated by religious bias and religion-related terrorism, as well as restrictive laws or state favoritism. Countries such as China and Vietnam, Dr. Grim notes, have high levels of government control but relatively low social hostilities among religious groups. (See chart.)